The day was dreary. Gray cloud hovered low and close to the ground, like a ceiling. The roads and ground were mostly mud and a cold breeze stirred the branches of the barren trees. It was, perhaps, late afternoon going on evening, yet the single, lonely wagon creaked on over the dirt path, driven by a tired-looking old man wearing a low, floppy hat and an equally tired horse, its head low to the ground, as if life had beaten it down.

As he was plodding along, he heard a noise in the woods and pulled the wagon to a stop.

(And this is where you start, Travis. Rob is riding in the back of the wagon, watching the woods slowly pass by. The NPC isn't in a particularly talkative mood, though he was kind enough to offer a ride as far as the next village, and your work as a mercenary has been slow, leading you on the road to other countries, namely Deiskarios, where a civil war has erupted, the details of which are confused. And the noise, incidentally, is Christian who is in the woods for reasons her character can't remember due to that pesky selective amnesia. Jump in when you're ready for Travis to find you.)._________________A path taken is paths forsaken.
-Old Altion proverb

"You hear that?" he asked. It irked him that the wagoner wasn't talkative. The road was long, the weather was miserable, and the food was worse. And he was not even sure about this direction even. Civil wars and such were really just generally unpleasant business, and despite the notion people had about mercenaries, he did not just take any and all jobs offered to him. He preferred monster hunting to fighting humans, any day, any time._________________Delicious tea, or deadly poison?

"Wouldn't have stopped the wagon if I didn't," the old man grunted, looking around. "Don't see nothing, though. S'pose we should press on, I don't want to be in these woods any longer than I have to be, not with the goblin ghosts hangin' abouts."

At that point, the noise sounded again, louder this time. And closer._________________A path taken is paths forsaken.
-Old Altion proverb